brown coolant and white exhaust ports... blown coolant seal?
05-30-10, 01:53 AM
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~924 Drifter~ fc n0000b
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brown coolant and white exhaust ports... blown coolant seal?
hello all, i bought a rx that was sitting for many many years back in october, since then have drained the coolant system, washed all the mold out of the overflow bottle (there was ALOT) and done pretty much everything else maintenence wise to the car without going into lengthy unessicary details. My question is, i didnt flush the heater core but let the coolant drain, ran the car for awhile since then and now my coolant in the overflow is comming up a brownish color. is that just residual from all the garbage from it sitting? i also had replaced the manifold with a racing beat header and noticed the inside of my exhuast ports are a charred white color. i still think injectors are locked to a point and have NOT been driving it hard or anything like that because of this. i do have a narrowband air fuel gauge (yes i know their useless for nothing other than a light show
) and when i hit the throttle it jumps from green to very low red and sometimes over 2400 it goes off the gauge completely..... is the white ports a sign of running wayyy too lean or is it a sign that the engine is blowing coolant into the rotor chambers?
) and when i hit the throttle it jumps from green to very low red and sometimes over 2400 it goes off the gauge completely..... is the white ports a sign of running wayyy too lean or is it a sign that the engine is blowing coolant into the rotor chambers?
05-30-10, 10:13 AM
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Engine, Not Motor
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The whiteness could just be a lean mixture. Unless you are losing coolant, you probably aren't burning it. A cooling system pressure test will tell you for sure.
This may also help:
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/unstore.htm
This may also help:
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/unstore.htm
06-02-10, 03:06 AM
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The whiteness could just be a lean mixture. Unless you are losing coolant, you probably aren't burning it. A cooling system pressure test will tell you for sure.
This may also help:
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/unstore.htm
This may also help:
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/unstore.htm
Am curious to know if rotary engines are more adversely affected, or less, from prolonged periods of stagnation, than conventional engines. Anyone?
06-02-10, 09:26 AM
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Engine, Not Motor
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Rotary engines have a lot of free moving seals which must be able to adjust to the surface they are trying to seal against. They will absolutely be harmed by improper long term storage.
06-02-10, 02:50 PM
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As a rule on a motor that has been sitting a few years, I use about a 1/4 cup marvel mystery oil down each rotor, and turn it over to get all three sides of each rotor. then repeat this every couple days for a week. Once that is done, I will pull the plugs and spin it over free to blow out the oil. Install new plugs and hope for the best.
06-02-10, 07:07 PM
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thank you guys. i will pickup the kit from napa on friday after i take the "new" injectors for the car to fuel injection performance to be rebuilt and serviced.
as far as the engine goes, it has been rebuilt before at some point in its life. awhile back i was told by a local rotary guy it sounded like it was ported, idk what to listen for, all i know is it sounds very strong and doesnt sound like any other rx7 i ever heard in the area, but it does not make sense to me that someone would port a automatic.
the guy who i bought the car from had 2 s4 autos, both he bought from the same person, apparently the guy who he bought them from had a barn with 6 rx7's, and a fb and a fd in front of his house. so as far as storage, i have no idea how it was stored or if the guy was just feeding me a bullshit story or not. either way, after i got the car i went by aarons guide, and began going over the car with a fine toothed comb to prevent any further damage and check to see just how bad it really was.
last inspection before i got the car was 2002, yeah 2002...... the title was from a dealership that went under back in 02 so u gotta figure last inspected really in 01 the car was as it sat at the dealership because the brakes were new and most everything else was to make it pass inspection but the car was sat for so long there were some issues with seized cables and the alike, u know, the usual. but thats not important.
at this point i do want to keep it rotary, really really love this engine, but if its terminal i do have a 302 from my buddys old truck sitting in my garage for just such a occasion.......... but that is a TOTAL last resort.... i will run the coolant and block tests after i get the kit and check the compression on the rotors this weekend, and take a sample of the old coolant to a radiator shop to test to see if exhaust gasses are present.
i put alot of work into this car. much more than i ever expected to, and i m not ready to give up on this engine, i am curious though if there is a way to tell if its ported without ripping apart the engine and looking at the irons?
as far as the engine goes, it has been rebuilt before at some point in its life. awhile back i was told by a local rotary guy it sounded like it was ported, idk what to listen for, all i know is it sounds very strong and doesnt sound like any other rx7 i ever heard in the area, but it does not make sense to me that someone would port a automatic.
the guy who i bought the car from had 2 s4 autos, both he bought from the same person, apparently the guy who he bought them from had a barn with 6 rx7's, and a fb and a fd in front of his house. so as far as storage, i have no idea how it was stored or if the guy was just feeding me a bullshit story or not. either way, after i got the car i went by aarons guide, and began going over the car with a fine toothed comb to prevent any further damage and check to see just how bad it really was.
last inspection before i got the car was 2002, yeah 2002...... the title was from a dealership that went under back in 02 so u gotta figure last inspected really in 01 the car was as it sat at the dealership because the brakes were new and most everything else was to make it pass inspection but the car was sat for so long there were some issues with seized cables and the alike, u know, the usual. but thats not important.
at this point i do want to keep it rotary, really really love this engine, but if its terminal i do have a 302 from my buddys old truck sitting in my garage for just such a occasion.......... but that is a TOTAL last resort.... i will run the coolant and block tests after i get the kit and check the compression on the rotors this weekend, and take a sample of the old coolant to a radiator shop to test to see if exhaust gasses are present.
i put alot of work into this car. much more than i ever expected to, and i m not ready to give up on this engine, i am curious though if there is a way to tell if its ported without ripping apart the engine and looking at the irons?
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06-03-10, 07:25 PM
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~924 Drifter~ fc n0000b
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ja ja ja i kno. its a jasper built bottom end with a canton scraper, roller rockers, comp cam, mac headers, weiand stealth intake, predator carb, offenhauser water pump, 120 amp alternator, gear drive cam gear, holley fuel pump, and a mallory ignition setup. i know a thing or 2 about building v8's 
but like i said, last resort ONLY. i like rotarys. wish i could find a way to adapt one to run in my 924 
which is what that v8 was originally built for...
anyways. ill let u guys know what i come up with after i run the tests this weekend.
but like i said, last resort ONLY. i like rotarys. wish i could find a way to adapt one to run in my 924 which is what that v8 was originally built for... anyways. ill let u guys know what i come up with after i run the tests this weekend.
09-20-10, 12:44 PM
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~924 Drifter~ fc n0000b
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well its been a few months since this was last updated. i m a lazy forum troll =P
anyway i just finally flushed my coolant last week, completely flushed just cause the car was already up on jacks to re seal the exhaust as well as replace the engine and trans mounts and install a better trans cooler. i been pre occupied with a homebrewed c.i.s. itb mod to my 924 all summer so i didnt want to tear into my daily and was driving it pretty sparingly.
i used the prestone kit, hooked the hose up to it blah blah blah. the coolant was pretty brown as expected. used a dipstick test on the coolant and no exhaust gases or oil was present in the coolant just alot of mold. when i had the exhaust off i checked the ports again and the white color was gone so i am assuming that all is well with the engine. i also rewired the fuel pump and was running injector cleaner since late may bcuz i couldnt find injector seals at any places locally plus we dont have many places arround that service injectors in my area. i knew it was running really lean. now it runs really rich. 12mpg rich lol. better safe than sorry. that will be dealt with soon.
bottom line, the engine is fine to the best of my knowledge and it just goes to show how reliable the rotary really is.
anyway i just finally flushed my coolant last week, completely flushed just cause the car was already up on jacks to re seal the exhaust as well as replace the engine and trans mounts and install a better trans cooler. i been pre occupied with a homebrewed c.i.s. itb mod to my 924 all summer so i didnt want to tear into my daily and was driving it pretty sparingly.
i used the prestone kit, hooked the hose up to it blah blah blah. the coolant was pretty brown as expected. used a dipstick test on the coolant and no exhaust gases or oil was present in the coolant just alot of mold. when i had the exhaust off i checked the ports again and the white color was gone so i am assuming that all is well with the engine. i also rewired the fuel pump and was running injector cleaner since late may bcuz i couldnt find injector seals at any places locally plus we dont have many places arround that service injectors in my area. i knew it was running really lean. now it runs really rich. 12mpg rich lol. better safe than sorry. that will be dealt with soon.
bottom line, the engine is fine to the best of my knowledge and it just goes to show how reliable the rotary really is.
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